“You sure you want to do this?” asked Heather, her eyes scanning the buildings ahead. “The Brotherhood of Steel may not be who you think they are.”

 

“They did a lot of good in the Capital Wasteland,” said Barb, going to a knee and aiming in on an approaching ghoul. Barb squeezed the trigger and sent the round across the several hundred yards and into the head of the ghoul, the suppressed rifle almost silent.

 

“Different time, different people.”

 

The party was approaching Cambridge from the west. Coming over from Graygarden and following the radio signal they had picked up just outside the settlement. A young lady, Nora had assumed, identifying herself as a Field Scribe of the Brotherhood of Steel on a Recon Team. Nora was curious as to what they had been looking for on the edge of her territory. It might also be nice to find fighters who could help them out, and from what she had heard the Brotherhood were disciplined warriors.

 

“I’m picking up the sounds of movement ahead,” she told her friends. She was wearing a brand new suit of Recon specialist X-01 Power Armor, with heightened sensors, a brand new jetpack on her back. It had been a stroke of luck that Arturo had the schematic for an X-01 jetpack in stock, so the suit, with rebreather and built in sanitation system, was her vehicle of choice for this mission. It didn’t give her quite the protection of the assault and other suits, but was still better protection than the lesser varieties of PA, especially those not to the Worsin standard.

 

“Here they come,” called out Heather, looking through her own recon glasses. A swarm of ghouls started heading across the open territory before the start of the built-up area. Nora didn’t know what set them off, but something had.

 

Nora recalled that the Veteran’s Hall where she and Nate were scheduled to speak on Bomb Day was just ahead. Cambridge was sure to have a lot of stuff of interest, with Cambridge Polymer Labs, CIT, and a number of electronics and robot shops. They were always on the lookout for new tech, especially the holy grail of her current search, working teleportation.

 

Nora put her grenade launcher to her shoulder and let fly, sending a forty-millimeter round into the front center cluster of the leading wave of ghouls. The round exploded and blasted every ghoul for ten meters in each direction to the ground, dead. Those slightly farther out fell to crawl forward, their legs no longer working. Nora reloaded and sent another round into the cluster to the right, then one into the group to the left. That left a half dozen still on their feet and a score of crawlers.

 

Her teammates started taking down the ones still walking forward, Barb with single shots of 5.56, Heather with her laser. They walked forward on the alert, the dogs slightly ahead and moving in a crouch. Nora came to the first crawler and whacked it with her nano-sword, chopping its head from its body. She cut every one down as she got to it, letting Barb scavenge whatever objects they carried on them.

 

The second swarm was now in sight, and the team used the same tactic, cutting them all down, then walking into Cambridge. There were the bodies of Raiders scattered around, the poor fools overrun by the ghouls.

 

“You ever see Raiders and ghouls fight,” said Heather. “Raiders have guns and run, while the ghouls never give up. Quality entertainment.”

 

Much as she hated Raiders she still felt sorry for the poor fools. She thought that no one should have to face a swarm like that. At least not without warning and overwhelming firepower, such as her group employed.

 

When the got onto the streets of Cambridge, near the diner and the metro station, the ghouls came out in force, spaces that seemed too small unfolding the creatures which staggered forward. Barb and Nora went to full autofire, cutting the creatures down in droves, while Heather burned down the leakers. One got through and knocked Barb to the ground, but a swift swung nano-sword blade took care of it.

 

“I hear a laser,” said Heather, motioning ahead.

 

Nora could hear it too, amplified by her audio pickups. Those were the people she had come to save, and it seemed like there was still time. “Come up as fast as you can,” she told her people, engaging her jetpack and soaring into the sky. Looking down she could see one person in an older style of power armor, trying to take down the swarms of ghouls, while a man and a woman on the steps of the station tried to cover. The man, without power armor, was obviously badly hurt, and the woman was trying to shield him and shooting any ghoul that got close.

 

Nora hovered for a moment, all her jetpack would allow, while firing bursts down to take down ghoul after ghoul. The pack flared out, overheated, and she fell to the ground, drawing her nano-sword and coming down on a ghoul to crush it into the ground. She spun around swinging, taking down multiple ghouls. More were coming in, and Nora jumped onto the walkway on the barricade, pulling her rifle back up and sliding a magazine home, aiming in on ghouls and blasting them down. As it looked like it was about to get out of hand her party arrived, the humans shooting down ghouls while the dogs pulled them to the ground. In moments it was over, the ghouls all gone, the Brotherhood people safe, for the moment.

 

“I thought you might need some help,” she said, walking up to the man in power armor.

 

“Look at that armor,” said the woman who Nora assumed was the Field Scribe, whatever that was. “That’s X-01, like the Enclave uses.”

 

The man in power armor pointed his laser at Nora, while her people tracked in on him.

 

“Explain yourself. Are you Enclave?”

 

“I don’t know what the Enclave are. I salvaged this armor from a research facility. Well, the armor I reversed engineered to make this suit.”

 

“And what are you doing here?”

 

“We heard you were having pest problems, and I work for an extermination company.”

 

“Evading my questions are a sure way to get ejected from this compound.”

 

Nora put her armored hands on armored hips and stared at the man with disbelief. She had gone out of her way to come here, and was being threatened with being ejected.

 

“Not sure who you think you are,” she said, “but this is the territory of our alliance of settlements. So I suggest you explain what you are doing on our territory.”

 

The man seemed taken aback for a moment, not sure what to say. “Our information didn’t include intelligence on an alliance of settlements.”

 

“Brand new, And after hearing the young lady on your broadcast, I thought I might help you, to our mutual advantage.”

 

“I’m not sure how much I should reveal to a civilian.”

 

“Well, you can at least tell me who you are. That can’t be top secret, can it.”

 

“I’m Knight Paladin Danse of the Brotherhood of Steel. The injured man in Knight Reese, the woman helping him is Scribe Halen. Now, civilian, if you might give me some more information on you and your unit. For my peace of mind.”

 

“I have Barb and  Heather with me, my team members. I’m not sure how high a rank Knight Paladin is, but I’m pretty sure I outrank you. I’m Lt. Commander Nora Jane Adams, US Navy.”

 

“Hah,” barked the injured Knight. “There has been no United States, or a Navy, for over two hundred years. Unless you are Enclave.”

 

“Still don’t know who they are. But to answer your unasked question, I came out of cryo a couple of months ago. Vault Tech put me and my neighborhood into cold sleep as part of an experiment. Everyone else died, I survived, but my infant son was stolen from me by parties unknown.”

 

“I’m so sorry,” said Danse. “So you were pre-war, probably discharged so you could have your baby. And your husband?”

 

“He was in power armor in Anchorage. He was murdered in front of my eyes in the Vault when they stole my baby. Then I was refrozen, and for some reason I survived.”

 

“What did you do in your Navy?”

 

“Fighter pilot. Ace. Though I did train with Army Airborne and was a Ranger dropout in college.”

 

“She sounds like she was a badass, Danse,” said Halen.

 

“If she’s even telling the truth.”

 

“You doubt my word, soldier,” said Nora. “If you weren’t injured I would dismount my power armor and kick your ass.”

 

“Everybody calm down,” said Danse. “Commander Adams. We appreciate your help. And from what you said, you had gone into the Vault well before the Enclave revealed themselves. They pattern themselves the remnants of the United States Government, and want to enslave every person on this continent. They would demand your loyalty if they contacted you.”

 

“And they could go fuck themselves. The US Government was one half of the disaster that ended my world, and I owe no loyalty to those bastards. The only loyalty I have are to the people of the Commonwealth.”

 

“Well, ma’am. We could really use your help. We located here because of their transmitter, but it’s just not strong enough to reach our base in the Capital Wasteland. Tell her, Halen.”

 

“There’s a transmitter booster at Arcjet Systems, just around the corner. But it’s sure to be a hard target.”

 

“Arcjet, huh. I remember them from before the war. Working on the engine for the Mars mission I do believe.”

 

“And I guess you’re going to tell us you were an astronaut next.”

 

“Reese, shut it.”

 

“No, Reese. That was beyond me. Those people were young Gods. I only regret they died before they got to go to the Red Planet.”

 

“Many people in the Brotherhood would disagree with that sentiment. But that’s neither here nor there. You’re a product of your time, when people thought tech advancement always a good thing.”

 

“I don’t think all advancement was good. The damn bombs that came close to destroying this world were an abomination.”

 

“So what do you say, Commander. Help us out.”

 

“Just call me Nora, and I would be happy to.”

 

“Then follow me to Arcjet. Or lead if you have a better idea where it is.”

 

They ran into some raiders along the way, then wild dogs and insects. Nora had to admit that Danse was particularly good with his weapon, bringing pinpoint fire onto the opposition. But she was also proud of her people, who did just as good a job.

 

“Why does only one of your people use a laser?” asked Danse.

 

“We don’t have that many of them, and Barb and me preferred firearms. Maybe one day I’ll warm to the things.”

 

“That does seem to be a powerful rifle.”

 

“Damn straight. I’ve taken down two raiders in power armor with this baby. Shredded their armor then put rounds through their heads.” She didn’t bother to tell Danse that the one had just gotten out of his armor to take a leak. One reason she was happy her current suit had a sanitation system built in.

 

“And what is that up there?” asked Danse, pointing the Graygarden.

 

“One of our settlements. Used to be a robotic hydroponic test site. The Robots are still there, along with human settlers.”

 

“You must have some interesting stories. I hope we can find the time to tell each other some of them.”

 

Nora was liking this guy. He had no idea what she looked like, no exposure to pheromones, and he was treating her as an equal. Soon they were in front of Arcjet.

 

“I think we should establish who is in charge before we go in. You undoubtedly outrank me, but..”

 

“I was a Squid and a pilot, and you are an infantry officer. This is your area of expertise, and your mission, so you are in charge. We’ll follow your lead.”

 

“Where the hell did those robots come from?” shouted an alarmed Danse.

 

“They’re mine. They help me with salvage operations.”

 

Danse looked like he wanted to say something but thought better of it. She thought the Brotherhood might take exception to anyone else taking technology. Well, she would let him take what he needed, and she would scrounge the rest.

 

“You might want to leave the dogs outside. At least the living one. We’re likely to run into things they will not help you against.”

 

Nora thought for a second, ordered the dogs to stay, then followed Danse into the building. She left the handy outside as well. They could always go back through the building after Danse got what he came after.

 

The second room they came too was filled with the remains of Protectrons. Barb grabbed what she could, while Nora looked at the blast points on the robots.

 

“Is this Brotherhood work?”

 

“No. Look at the evidence. There are no expended fusion shells, no blood. No, this was done by Institute Synths.”

 

“Motherfuckers,” hissed Heather, and Danse turned to look at her.

 

“It seems that your soldier has strong opinions on synths.”

 

“I’ve never seen one myself. While she..”

 

“Lost my sister and all my friends to the motherfuckers,” said Heather. “Motherfuckers.”

 

“Well, Nora. I think we are going to get up close and personal with them shortly. And if you want salvage, you can have all of the energy weapons they drop.”

 

They ran into the first synths several rooms further on, where a number of stairs ascended to an upper level. The synths seemed to come out of nowhere, firing their lasers and some other energy weapons. Nora and Danse took the brunt of their fire. Heather and Barb added their fire, and the synths went down quickly. Nora took a close look at one of the machines, looking much like a humanoid robot with no armor or skin layer. She thought them hideous, and considered that if the Brotherhood was the enemy of these things she wanted Danse’s people to be her friends.

 

They ran into synths all the way in. including another kind that had a covering of plastic plates. They were little smarter than the all metal ones, or so it seemed. More rooms, more synths, multiple turrets that activated. At one point Danse got caught in a corridor with more than a dozen laser turrets. Nora took most of them down rapid fire, Heather and Barb taking out the remainder.

 

Nora hacked through several terminals, getting them on further when they would have been stopped. And then they got to the engine test chambers, and the walkway that led up had been collapsed.

 

“We need to go down there and power up the elevator.”

 

“I could jet up there, but I can see where that wouldn’t help the rest of you. So down it is.”

 

They got down on the floor, right below the nozzle of the nuclear engine. She looked anxiously up, an unreasoning fear since there was no way it was just going to go off on its own.

 

“Can you get into the interior and start the generators. I'll wait out here on watch for synths. Then we’ll go up the elevator.”

 

“Sounds good,” said Nora, leading her people into the workshop area. “Well, what is this?” she asked, coming up on a strange looking large gun. “Junkjet. What in the hell does that mean.”

 

“No matter what it does, it's bound to have some good parts,” said Barb.

 

“I’ll take it then.”

 

They looted the area completely, getting a lot of technology and circuits. Nora then started up the fusion reactor and walked out to the viewing window.

 

“I’m under attack,” yelled Danse. There were dozens of synths out there, firing on Danse, whose armor was standing up to their fire, so far.

 

“Engine ready to fire,” said a computer voice. Nora saw the glowing button, and knew that if she pushed it the engine would fire. But it would incinerate anything in that room, including Danse.

 

“Let’s take them out,” she told her people, taking up her grenade launcher and running down the corridor. Nora sent a grenade into an upper landing with four synths on it as soon as they came in sight. She pulled the nano-sword and ran full on into a small group of synths, knocking them over like bowling pins. She struck out right and left, every blow to the head destroying one of the robots. Barb and Heather took cover by the entrance to the room and started putting fire into the synths, while Danse continued to take them out. And then it was over.

 

“Good job, Commander. Now, let’s get upstairs and find that Deep Range Transmitter.”

 

It took two trips by elevator to bring up two power armor suits and two in regular armor. At least the synths let them all get up before attacking. Heather was injured, though her armor protected her enough that it wasn’t fatal. Nora, Barb and Danse took down the other synths. Nora started searching, and found a box labeled Deep Range Transmitter.

 

“Found it,” she said, handing the component over to Danse. They rode up an elevator to the surface, coming out in a service shack, and exited the facility.

 

As soon as they were out Danse removed his helmet, revealing that he was a ruggedly handsome man. “Mind if I see what you look like, Nora. I keep imagining someone that you can’t be.”

 

“Might as well,” said Nora, opening her suit to the chorus of the AI, then climbing out.

 

“My word. You’re gorgeous.”

 

“Why thank you, gallant sir. You’re not so bad looking yourself.”

 

“You are one exceptional lady, Commander Adams. Anything you don’t excel at.”

 

“Well, I can’t cook worth a damn. Now, you want to take a quick look at my settlement before we head back to the police station?”

 

“Sure.”

 

Danse walked around the settlement, talking with people, looking at robots, while Nora unloaded her cargo bot and Wilson. There was a lot more to go back for, but she though that could wait for the morrow. She had hundreds of pounds of synth component for Sturgis and Conrad to look over before they recycled them. And over fifty energy weapons, many just the barrels and receivers, a few full-on weapons. Enough to let her make fifty laser turrets for the settlements.

 

“What in the world is that? A mailbox?”

 

“A QESS portal. A Quantum Entangled Storage System. Something my techs engineered from research holo-tapes. Anything that goes in can be accessed at any other station. So everything I’m putting in will be available to my people in Sanctuary Hills.”

 

“That’s some impressive tech,” said Danse, eyes wide.

 

Hope that gives you something to think about, thought Nora. She liked Danse, but she still had no reason to trust his organization. That they had more power than hers was a given, and if they felt the alliance had superior tech, they were unlikely to fly off the handle and attack. Or so she hoped.

 

“I’ll go back with you to Cambridge, then come back here to finish up at Arcjet.”

 

*     *     *

 

“Good job, sir,” said Halen as Danse handed over the Deep Range Transmitter.

 

“We knew you could do it, sir,” said Reese.

 

“I couldn’t have done it without the help of our friends here,” said Danse, gesturing to Nora. “Without them, I’m afraid I would have been just another casualty.

 

Nora’s power armor was parked outside the station, Heather, Barb and a couple of the settlers were busy stripping Arcjet of all it had. Nora had pulled back on her pheromones. She was still leaking some, but not enough to drive men crazy, and they might figure that Halen, also an attractive if dirty woman, might be the cause of their slight arousal.

 

Danse had showered at Graygarden, and Nora was going to offer the same to Halen. Maybe even Reese, if he started to act normal.

 

“They were amazing. As good as any I have seen among our ranks. I would like to offer Commander Adams a position in the Brotherhood.”

 

“And I’m afraid I’m going to have to turn you down, at least for now. I have prior commitments.”

 

“I doubt if this loner could have fit in anyway, Top.”

 

“Now listen here, buddy,” said Nora, storming toward Reese, her face a mask of anger. “I served in a military so large that your whole Brotherhood would at most have amounted to a brigade, probably more like a battalion. I won a silver star for shooting down a dozen Chinese aircraft, and flew innumerable ground support missions for United States Marines. So don’t throw that loner shit at me.”

 

“Get out of my face if you don’t want me to hurt you.” Reese went to push her away, and she moved too fast for him to follow.

 

“What the hell are you? A synth?”

 

“No, I am not a synth. My biology has been augmented to make me a better soldier. And if you push me I will hurt you. I’ll feel awful about it later, but I will react.”

 

“No one will hurt anyone,” said Danse. “I am sorry that you turned down my invitation, but I can understand it. You are building something special here, and any offer of tech to your faction would be laughable. And Reese, you would do well to remember that Nora helped us out, with no promise of recompense. Which reminds me. I want you to have my laser rifle. I have another just like it, but I think you might find it of use. Probably a bit more powerful than the weapon Ms. Heather carries.”

 

“Thank you,” said Nora, taking the rifle and looking it over. “How thoughtful. Now, are you going to be alright?”

 

“I think so. But if you want to look in on us periodically, to see if we’re okay, I won’t protest. And I would like to fight alongside you again in the future.”

 

Nora walked outside to get into her armor, Halen following her. “You must have really impressed Top, Commander Adams.”

 

“Nora, please. That world is gone, and I only use that title when I need to dress down assholes like Reese.”

 

“He’s not so bad when you get to know him. He’s just all Brotherhood. But I am so happy to have met you. Good luck out there.”

 

*     *     *

 

“Assessment,” said Danse looking at his people.

 

“I think she’s a threat, Top. You should have eliminated her on the mission.”

 

“That’s not the way I treat allies, Reese,” growled Danse. “Besides, I like her. But I have to agree that she and her organization could be a threat to our mission.”

 

“I like her too, sir,” said Halen. “To have gone what she went through and land on her feet like she did. And she’s not sitting around crying, but seems to be making a real difference to the people of the Commonwealth. Yes, she might be a threat to the Brotherhood and our goals, depending on what Elder Maxim wants to do here, if he even comes here. But she also might be a strong ally who can help us to make inroads with the people. And, she wants to find the same people we do. A pity she didn’t agree to help us. Even as a contactor she could scout out areas and acquire tech for us.”

 

“They’re using that tech, Halen,” said Reese. “Tech we are mandated to remove from their hands. And what in the hell could we offer them that would get them on our side? They already have better power armor than we have. And that damned magic storage device they have is beyond anything we can build. I definitely don’t trust that woman to use that tech wisely.”

 

“Okay. I’ve got a feel for your opinions on them. We will keep a close watch on them, but we will not interfere. And if they ask for our help, and we can give it, we will. Understood?”

 

Reese obviously didn’t like it, but he nodded his head, while Halen seemed to be enthusiastic about helping their new friends. And Danse wondered if he might convince Nora, when next they met, to do a little recon for the Brotherhood while they were knocking about doing their own thing. There was a lost patrol out there, the people who had preceded him to the Commonwealth, and his command really wanted to know what had happened to them.